Maharashtra: ‘Update final electoral list ahead of MUHS polls’

With the countdown beginning for the March 17 elections to the Maharashtra University of Health Sciences MUHS senate and board of studies the names of hundreds of professors associate professors and principals deans attached to state civicrun and private medical colleges from Mumbai and the Konkan are missing from the final electoral list uploaded by MUHSThis is the first ever time that such a large number of names are missing from the listIrked the Maharashtra State Medical Teachers Association MSMTA addressed a letter on February 14 to the vicechancellor MUHS to update the list The association has also sent a letter to Girish Mahajan medical education ministerThe names of principals of the civicrun GS Medical College KEM LTMMG Sion and Grant Medical College JJ and the government medical colleges GMC in Alibaug and Sindhudurg and BJ Medical College in Pune are missing or marked NILAlso Read Mumbai We need civicrun CBSE schools too say Deonar residentsInterestingly the name of the principaldean of HBT Cooper and TNMC Nair are listedOverall the names of barely a few professors and associate professors are listed It is as if these medical colleges are run without principals pointed out a senior faculty member of a civicrun medical college in MumbaiDr Sachin Mulkutkar president MSMTA which has more than 3200 professors and associate professors as its members said ldquoThey MUHS have kept hundreds of teaching faculties dean professor and associate professors of the four biggest medical colleges in MumbaimdashJJ KEM Nair Coopermdash and the Nagpur Latur and Gondia GMCs out of the MUHS elections Nearly 50 per cent of BMC and government medical collegesrsquo faculty names are not in the final electoral list released which is unfortunate It is nothing but depriving the faculties who otherwise would have been keen on contesting the electionsrdquoHe added ldquoOur concern is also about the manner in which MUHS had released their first list on February 7 but allegedly later added approximately 200 names of influential teachers and a fresh list was issued on February 13 But they refused to add names of the remaining teachers of JJ Nair KEM Cooper and Government Dental College GDC and Nagpur Latur and Gondia GMCs This is unfair Had select additional names not been added after February 7 the association would not have raised concernsrdquoDr Mulkutkar further stated ldquoThe teaching faculty is already upset with their names missing from the electoral list and whispers are making the rounds that this may have probable repercussions on the university practical examinations which will start on February 23 and evaluation of theory papers starting from SaturdayrdquoDr Uday Mohite central president MSMTA said ldquoMUHS claims that they had written to the respective medical colleges two months ago asking for enrollment but this information has not reached the teaching faculties in most of the government and civic medical colleges And this is the first time hundreds of names will be missing from the MUHS electoral listrdquoHe added ldquoThis means that we have no representative from GMCs or civic medical colleges contesting or casting their vote thereby having no voice or say in the MUHS If the MUHS already has the data of faculties attached to each college in the state and if this gets updated yearly it can easily convert them to the electoral list instead of asking for details separately for the election which is conducted once in five yearsrdquoOther sideSo far 498 medical health science colleges in the state are affiliated with the MUHS Nashik Of these 50 are medical colleges and 19 of them are GMCs and the around 14000 who teach in these colleges are eligible votersDr Rajendra Bangal registrar MUHS also the election officer said ldquoAs per university norms for conducting polls we had asked for details in the prescribed format from the affiliated medical health sciences colleges across Maharashtra a few months ago and even did regular followups The last date for receiving the list from every affiliated college was December 31 2022 and most of them promptly sent us the entire lists which were released as per the scheduled date on February 7rdquoAsked if he was aware of MSMTArsquos concerns Dr Bangal said ldquoMUHS had given sufficient time to colleges but those who did not respond within the specified dates have lost their chance of getting their names incorporated in the electoral list and nothing can be done now as entire election programme has already been chalked out Asked why the data of colleges that are used for yearly inspection purposes was not used he clarified ldquoThe norms for conducting elections as per the University Act demand that the faculty lists need to be sought from respective colleges who are eligible for casting their vote and contesting the election The lists are made and uploaded accordinglyrdquoHe refused to comment on the allegation of adding names17Day in March when poll will be heldImp dates as per election scheduleFeb 7 Date of publication of final electoral rollFeb 10 to 15 Date for filing of nominations of candidatesFeb 20 to 23 Date for scrutiny of NominationsFeb 28 to March 3 Date for publication of final list of eligible candidates for contesting electionsMarch 10 Date for publication of list of contesting candidates